Alcoholic beverage license

“ The alcoholic beverages result in several problems concerning health, families, accidents and crimes, affecting the whole society and economy of the Nation in consequence. It is expedient to determine the measures for their control and for treatment and rehabilitation of the alcoholics, so that the social and economic problems and impacts would be reduced, the public health would be enhanced, the people would be aware of harms and dangers of the alcoholic beverages, and the children and juveniles would be prevented from easy access to them. It is therefore necessary to enact this Act. ”

“ The Volstead act declares that the phrase "intoxicating liquor," as used in the act, "shall be construed to include 'all liquors' containing one-half of one percentum or more of alcohol by volume which are fit for use for beverage purposes."
Since everybody knows that a drink containing one-half of one per cent. of alcohol is not in fact an intoxicating drink, a vast amount of indignation has been aroused, among opponents of National Prohibition, by this stretching of the letter of the Amendment. ”

“ In this Act:
"Alcoholic beverage" means a spirit under the law on spirits, but not includes medicines, psychoactive substances or harmful drugs under the laws concerned;
"Alcoholic" means a person who consumes an alcoholic beverage in a manner increasing the amount thereof time by and time, to the extent detrimental to his own physical or mental health and causing him to incur the alcohol withdrawal syndrome once he ceases to so consume ”

“ This court held the section valid for the following reasons:
'The power of the federal government, granted by the Eighteenth Amendment, to enforce the prohibition of the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquor carries with it power to enact any ligislative measures reasonably adapted to promote the purpose. The denaturing in order to render the making and sale of industrial alcohol compatible with the enforcement of prohibition of alcohol for beverage purposes is not always effective. ”

“ In other words, it clearly appears that a liquor law, to be capable of effective enforcement must, in the opinion of the Legislatures and courts of the several states, be made to apply either to all liquors of the species enumerated, like beer, ale or wine, regardless of the presence or degree of alcoholic content; or if a more general description is used, such as distilled, rectified, spirituous, fermented, malt, or brewed liquors, to all liquors within that general description regardless of alcoholic content;b or to such of these liquors as contain a named percentage of alcohol ”

“ No person shall on or after the date when the Dighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act, and all the provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to the end that the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage may be prevented. ”

“ And it was held at page 363 of 271 U.S., 46 S.C.t. 513, 516, that 'the words 'no person' in section 10 refer to persons authorized under other provisions of the act to carry on traffic in alcoholic liquors,' not to the ordinary violator of a provision prohibiting transactions in respect of liquors for beverage purposes. ”

“ Any person, firm, association or corporation desiring or intending to manufacture or distill any liquors containing alcohol within this state shall first obtain from the state board of control a permit or license so to do, and it shall be unlawful for any such person, firm, association or corporation to manufacture or distill any liquors containing alcohol within this state without having such permit or license. ”

“ This department which began in weakness, and was for years regarded as fanatical even by many members of the W. C. T. U. has entered upon an era of victories. The National Pure Food Law requires the percentage of alcohol in patent medicines, and the presence of different dangerous drugs, to be stated upon the label. The prohibition law of Georgia forbids physicians to prescribe alcoholic beverages, absolute alcohol only being permitted. Kansas has amended her law so that whisky drug-stores are eliminated. If physicians prescribe alcohol the law forbids charge for it. ”

“ For the legislation and decisions of the highest courts of nearly all of the states establish that it is deemed impossible to effectively enforce either prohibitory laws or other laws merely regulating the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, if liability or inclusion within the law is made to depend upon the issuable fact whether or not a particular liquor made or sold as a beverage is intoxicating. ”

“ There a section of the National Prohibition Act forbidding the sale of denatured alcohol without a compliance with certain regulations was assailed as beyond the authority of Congress under the Eighteenth Amendment upon the ground that the amendment relates only to traffic in intoxicating liquor for beverage purposes, and that, as denatured alcohol is not usable as a beverage, authority to prevent or regulate its sale is not given to Congress by the amendment, but remains exclusively in the states. ”

“ This suggestion is rather fanciful than otherwise, particularly as applied to this case, for that the other states, particularly New York to which this alcohol was exported, have never undertaken to control either the manufacture, sale, or use of alcoholic spirits. In the interpretation of all statutes and in case of doubt it is a well recognized rule of interpretation that the court must consider what evil it was existing prior to the enactment of the statute that the statute was intended to correct or remedy. ”

“ The toll that alcohol-related accidents takes on Americans between the ages of 16 and 20 is especially alarming. Although in most States it is illegal for minors to purchase alcoholic beverages in any form, nearly half of all traffic fatalities in this age group stem from alcohol-related accidents. ”

“ No holder of a license shall use or allow the use of any mark or label on a bottle, in which alcoholic liquor is kept for sale, that does not precisely and clearly indicate the nature of the contents of the bottle, or which might in any way deceive any consumer as to the nature, composition or quality of the contents. ”

“ The seizure and destruction cannot be sustained on the ground that the act in question destroyed the value of the liquor. The question of compensation is not involved. That alcoholic liquors are capable of valuable uses is recognized by the whole mass of state and national regulatory and prohibitory laws, as well as by the state legislation in question. ”

“ It is true the national government exacts licenses as a condition of the sale of intoxicating liquors, but that is solely for the purposes of revenue, and is no attempted exercise of the police power. A license from the United States does not give the licensee authority to sell liquor in a state whose laws forbid its sale, and neither does a license from a state to sell liquor enable the licensee to sell without paying the tax and obtaining the license required by the Federal statute. ”

“ LIQUOR LAWS. In most Western countries the sale of alcoholic liquor is regulated by law. The original and principal object is to check the evils arising from the immoderate use of such liquor, in the interest of public order, morality and health; a secondary object is to raise revenue from the traffic. The form and the stringency of the laws passed for these purposes vary very widely in different countries according to the habits of the people and the state of public opinion. The evils which it is desired to check are much greater in some countries than in others. ”

“ That all laws in regard to the manufacture and taxation of and traffic in intoxicating liquor, and all penalties for violations of such laws that were in force when the National Prohibition Act was enacted, shall be and continue in force, as to both beverage and nonbeverage liquor, except such provisions of such laws as are directly in conflict with any provision of the National Prohibition Act or of this act ”

“ The first section does, indeed, make it penal to manufacture, sell, barter, deliver, store, or keep in possession any spirituous, malt, vinous, fermented, brewed, or other liquors which contain alcohol, and are used as a beverage, and declares all such liquors to be contraband, and against the morals, good health, and safety of the state, and authorizes them to be seized wherever found, without warrant, and turned over to the state commissioner ”

“ And yet we are told that licensing the saloons is a bad business investment; that it costs more than it comes to; that the way to abolish poverty is to abrogate the liquor license law. Strange that the Prohibs should possess such transcendent business heads and such empty stomachs! Doubtless the drinking of liquor adds to the cost of our judiciary; doubtless it is responsible for some crime; but the question at issue is not one of liquor-drinking vs. teetotalism—it is a question of drinking licensed liquor or Prohibition aquafortis. ”

“ In New Hampshire and Nebraska, and in several other States, a person arrested for drunkenness is given his liberty if he will disclose the name of the person who sold him the liquor on which he became intoxicated. In most of the other States (as in New York) the damages are not limited except by the facts of such case. In New York, too, the preliminary notice is insisted on. In other States (as Idaho) the seller's damage is the loss of his license, if notice not to sell has been properly served upon him. ”

“ No sale and delivery of alcoholic liquor shall be made in this State unless by a manufacturer or other person who holds a license of the Commissioner to sell and deliver alcoholic liquor and unless the sale and delivery is made to a person who is authorized to receive alcoholic liquor under Chapter 5 of this title. ”

“ Any licensee, or employee of a licensee, or person in charge of a licensed premises shall refuse to sell or serve alcoholic liquors to any individual if such individual is intoxicated or appears to be intoxicated. Such licensee, employee of a licensee or person in charge of the licensed premises shall not be liable to any individual for damages claimed to arise from the refusal to sell alcoholic liquors if such refusal is based upon this section. ”

“ The Brooks Law, as construed by the courts of the state. prohibits every sale of spirituous liquor without a license, excepting only such sales as are made by druggists, and these are forbidden to sell intoxicating liquors except on prescription of a regular physician. The law applies, however small the percentage of alcohol, and although the liquor is not intoxicating. ”

“ There never has been, never can, and never will be a law enacted that prevent men from drinking liquor, especially those in whom there is a dominant appetite for it. The idea of licensing men to sell liquor and punishing men for drinking it is monstrous. To be sure, they are not punished for drinking it in moderation, but no man can be moderate who has such an appetite as I have. Why license men to sell liquor, and then punish others for drinking it? What sort of sense or justice is there in it, anyhow? There is a double punishment for the drunkard, and none for the liquor-seller. ”

“ At age 56, petitioner has a record of more than 40 arrests for drunkenness or conduct while drunk. There was testimony that petitioner has been an alcoholic for over 30 years, that his act of buying liquor, as well as of drinking to intoxication, is involuntary. In the past 10 years, he has been through the arrest-release cycle more than 20 times.
This record and the medical literature admonish us that punishment of alcoholics does society no good. It can be applauded only by the uninformed or the sadistic. It is neither a deterrent nor a cure for those afflicted. ”

“ If the legislative body come deliberately to the conclusion that a due regard for the public safety and morals requires a suppression of the liquor traffic, there is nothing in the commercial clause of the Constitution, or in the 14th Amendment to that instrument, to forbid its doing so. While, perhaps, it may not wholly prohibit the use or sale of them for medicinal purposes, it may hedge about their use as a general beverage such restrictions as it pleases. ”

“ Our laws license the sale of intoxicating drinks under certain restrictions on week days, but no man can claim the right under such license to cause mobs, riots, bloodshed or murder. Hence no man has, or can have, any right by license or otherwise to dispense liquors to intoxicated persons, nor to furnish sufficient liquor to cause intoxication. ”

“ It is clear that Congress, under its express power to enforce by appropriate legislation the prohibition of traffic in intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes, may adopt any eligible and appropriate means to make that prohibition effective. The possible abuse of a power is not an argument against its existence. ”

“ It is announced, however, that the Government, struck with the dangers threatening the people by the increase of alcoholism, is preparing new legislation which will apply to sellers and consumers. For dealers it requires a license which will be granted only when competent authorities are satisfied of the need of the shop, or are given incontestable moral guarantees; prohibits their selling on credit, declaring all debts contracted for liquors null; forbids sales to children less than thirteen years old and to in-intoxicated persons ”

“ The Finance Act of 1902 allows a manufacturer to obtain a license which permits the use of duty-free alcohol, if he can show that such alcohol is absolutely essential for the success of his business, and that methylated spirit is unsuitable. Notwithstanding this permission there have been many agitations on the part of chemical manufacturers to obtain a less restricted use of absolute alcohol, and in 1905 an Industrial Alcohol Committee was appointed to receive evidence and report as to whether any modification of the present law was advisable. ”